The power struggle continues… Oscar is now really giving his father – alpha male Ndaronse – a run for his money! At his age Oscar has successfully defeated all high ranking females and senior males. Most of his achievements have been largely contributed to by his mother Judy, who is the highest ranking female. Oscar’s father Ndaronse has also always been in favor of Oscar whenever he would intervene in a fight.
Ndaronse's support for Ocsar was always unconditional and his sponsorship so sincere that he was obviously not able to predict that the inevitable was bound to happen – that Oscar would eventually turn against him.
Just the other day one of the females was on oestros. During such times tension is very high and aggressive, and incidents frequently break out. Ndaronse and Oscar came out of the bush to an open area in hot pursuit of this female who was on heat, both males' hairs standing on end. On reaching the female, the males stood close to one another looking each other straight in the eye. The female looked scared, but to my amusement, walked towards Oscar who led her away a few meters Ndaronse.
Oscar was determined to copulate with the female despite it being seen by the alpha male as unacceptable behavior. Being extremely intolerant of other males mating, Ndaronse would normally attack those who attempted to do so. To avoid this, the couple moved into a nearby bush, but the alpha male followed. Within a few minutes loud screams were heard as the two males fought each other. Ndaronse came out running and screaming while Oscar followed him closely. When Oscar’s mother Judy heard the hullabaloo, she arrived at the scene and went straight in to support her son. In a matter of minutes the fighting was intense and a bigger number of chimpanzees joined in. It was extraordinary to witness that some of these individuals had taken sides and were also fighting each other!
This was such a spectacular display of dominance; it was difficult for us to intervene in order to minimize the level of injury. After a few minutes of serious fighting, Ndaronse pulled out running towards the bush pulling a temper tantrum. Throwing himself on the ground while screaming loudly in an attempt to call some of his allies over and help, he later realized that they were not around in his hour of need. He seemed to have lost control of himself as he writhed around stretching both arms beseeching for some of the senior females to help in a retaliatory attack against Oscar. But his beseeching gestures fell on deaf ears, even from some of the females who had always supported him.
Ndaronse had spent almost ten minutes inspecting the injuries inflicted on him during the fight when he finally decided to approach Oscar, who by now, was surrounded by some of his allies grooming him. Oscar was just relaxed, enjoying this new kingly attention. Ndaronse’s attempt to reconcile with him was not received so well. Normally, when rivals run towards each other they kiss, embrace and finally groom one another. Instead, Oscar coldly hugged him and pulled off immediately, his hair on end breaking branches as he left. Though Ndaronse has not fully surrendered to Oscar, it is clear that he is a ceremonial alpha male. The dominance process is ongoing and has split this community into those who support Oscar, those who support Ndaronse and those that are neutral. The power struggle continues…
